The surroundings, backgrounds, environment or settings which determine or clarify the meaning of an event.

The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed

The parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect

Topics we looked at last year:

Reading Images

Portraiture

Language of Advertising

Representation

Missrepresentation

Objectification

Sock and Controversy

Sub Culture and Style

Culture and Fashion

Semiotics of Fashion

Fashion: Body and Gender

Context of Practice Year 2 Module Aims

To develop and extend a critical understanding of critical, culture and contextual frameworks which inform the production and consumption of commercial photography

To develop enhanced communication skills, which demonstrate knowledge and understanding of critical theories and discourses and their impact on creative practice

Topics we will be looking at this year

The Body and Sex

Gender

The Self

Culture and Community

Technology

Capitalism and Commerce

Globalisation

Sustainability

Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual culture – Look at this book again

19/10/17

The body and the gaze

The subject as Objects

The concept of objectification has special relevance to photography. In one sense photography inadvertently objectification people by turning them into something to be looked at. (solomon-Godeau 1991:221-22 cited in wells 2000)

Men act and women appear

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of women herself is male: The surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight: Berger 1972:47

The Venus of Urbino by Titian 1487-1576

The image of nude women in European painting were presented for the male spectator as the ideal spectator was always deemed to be male

Olympia – Edouard Manet 1863

“You painted a naked women because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure” (Berger 1972:51) – The mirror makes the woman first and foremost a sight to be looked at

Susannah and the elders by Tintoretto 1518-1594

We look at her being looked at. She looks in a mirror and sees herself as a sight for elders and for the spectator

History of body in photography

“The fascination with the body has also been linked to the advent of new technologies and technical knowledge and news means of rapidly reproducing and distributing photographic images.” (Wells 2004;162)

Women as Objects

The legs of the Countess 1856-60

Objectification

“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also relations of women themselves. The surveyor of women in herself is male: the survey female. Thus she turns herself into an onject- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.” (Berger 1972:47 cited in wells 2004:170)

The Body as Display

Women are depicted in images very differently from men

The image of a female nude a women is posed as if her body is on display

The female body is understood in terms of forms and desire

The body becomes an oboist before the viewers game.

Body of action

Whereas the masculine body is one of action

Berger’s idea of “men act and women appear” can still be applied to the images we see today

The concept of the gaze is about the relationship between pleasure and images

The camera turns the depicted person into an object

The photographer has control over those in the front of the lens

the camera represents a controlling gaze

“People have a habit of looking at me as if i’m some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.” Marilyn Monroe

Images are central to the experience of modernity and provide complex fields in which power relations are exercised and looks are exchanged

Ask More questions

“For so long we have been sold a specific idea of what beauty looks like- thin, white, blemish free. However, the representation of beauty or what’s acceptable has been shifting thanks to social media, since the consumer has a platform to rise their voice, express themselves and insert their own images into the visual landscape. people want reality, and they want to see themselves and the topics that matter to them reflected in the world, and in the media.” – Piera Gelardi (2016)

Does the gender of photographer change the concept of the gaze?

Do women have a the right to self-objectify, without critic?

Does the consumer really need sex to buy a product?

Is social media changing concepts or just amplifying them?

9/11/17

The self and Identity

The self and nature vs nature

What is identity?

Martha Bek

Sigmund Freud

Freud’s view of the human mind “the mental iceberg”

Freud’s theory of self centred on unconscious mind – The mind consists of three parts: -ID, ego, superego – develops are a result of parental guidance

Michel Foucault – he disagrees with nation of collective identity, that nobody should conform to a set of rules to define them – Free floating

4 Significant domains or themes as priority areas for research + scholarship – These map broadly to critical societal research/issue

Community? – social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common culture and historical heritage

Culture – the term culture in what is known as the – “Anthropological definition”, refers to a whole way of life, meaning a broad range of activities geared towards classifying symbolically within society

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